Make a dough of all the ingredients and knead nicely, I do it in a food processor so it is very easy.
Place it in a oiled bowl and rest for a hour.
You can make around 6 smallish pizzas with this.
After the dough has risen, make 6 balls and flatten each and roll them. Keep pressing the edges simultaneously.
Place this on a pizza pan, spread pizza sauce,veggies of your choice and lots of mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle some salt and herbs as well
Bake it in a 200c preheated oven for 15 mins.
For a cheese burst version, spread a layer of cheese spread on the base and then spread pizza sauce.
Yet another bread and yes this was our We Knead to Bake No. 9. Loved this bread and its like whats not to like about home baked bread. There are 2 versions of this one is the savory one and the other is a sweet one where in the buns are drenched in sugar syrup..since we like more of savory breads, this was my attempt. Here’s the recipe.
Savory Honeycomb Buns
Ingredients:
For the dough:
1 cup lukewarm milk
1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp Salt
40gm butter, melted
2 tbsp milk for brushing the dough
For Filling:
2 Onions Chopped
1 Small capsicum chopped
Cheddar Cheese – 2 small cubes chopped into smaller cubes
Oil 1 tsp
Pinch Sugar
Salt to taste
Herbs and chilli flakes
Method:
For Stuffing:
Heat oil in a pan and add the chopped onions, add little sugar and cook them on a low flame till they are browned nicely.
Add capsicum, salt, herbs and chilli flakes and cook for a min.
Once cooled add the chopped cheddar cubes and mix.
For the Dough:
Mix flour, yeast and salt and mix it. Add Melted butter and mix it
nicely. Add the warm milk and knead to a soft dough.
Transfer to a smooth surface ( I do it on the Kitchen Platform) and knead the dough nicely for atleast for 10 mins. (kneading is very important..)
Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl, turning it to coat completely with the oil. Cover and let it rise till double in volume, for about an hour.
Turn the dough out onto your work surface. You won’t really need to flour it as the dough is quite manageable as it is.
Make small lime sized ball .
Take each piece and flatten it out a little and place teaspoon of filling in the centre.
Pull up the sides and wrap the dough around the filling, pinching it closed at the top.
Smoothen it into a round ball. Place this in a well-greased baking pan and repeat the same for the remaining balls.
Cover with clingfilm and let rest for half hour.
Brush the Buns lightly with milk and bake them at 200c for 20 mins.
U can also lightly brush them with melted butter once they are out of the oven.
These buns were great and loved the texture. These had a nice crumb and were very soft as well.
I made plain pav as well with the same dough and used half of wholewheat flour. Will share the recipe in the next post.
I have attempted Garlic Bread earlier and it is one of the most viewed recipe on this blog. I love the simplicity of that bread and it so easy to put together. If you have never attempted making bread, give it one go you will be amazed with the results. Nothing beats the Aroma of bread being baked in the oven and really trust me you will be really hooked to it. This time i made the stuffed garlic one , and it came out great. I tried to make it a bit healthy by using half atta and half maida. The addition of atta does change the taste and texture of the bread a bit but it is good and for me it was a feeling of goodness as my daughter Sakshi loved bread and it gives me satisfaction in knowing that it is homemade and a bit healthy as well. So here goes the recipe.
Stuffed Garlic Bread:
Ingredients
For Garlic Bread
All purpose flour 3/4 cup
Atta – 3/4 cup
yeast 1/2 tsp
warm water 1/2 cup+ 3tbsp
Salt to taste
Grated garlic 5 cloves
Olive oil 3 tbsp
Italian Seasoning 2tbsp
Chilli Flakes 1 tsp
B.pepper 1/2 tsp
For Stuffing
1 small capsicum chopped
Paneer chopped in smallcubes
Handful of boiled corn kernels
Mozarella Cheese
B.Pepper
Chilli flakes
Salt a big pinch.
Method
Prepare Garlic Bread
Heat water till warm and add yeast to it.
Let the yeast proof for 5 mins till you see a frothy mixture.
Add 3/4 cup atta to it and mix nicely with a laddle.
Rest this batter for 45 mins till it doubles.
Add the remaining flour,3 cloves garlic grated and salt and mix nicely.
At this stage i had to add couple of tbsp of water to get the dough together.
Knead it nicely and transfer to a floured counter space and knead the dough for the 8-10 mins till the dough is smooth and springy.
The dough will be a bit sticky so i had to spread some oil in my hands to get the dough together.
Let the dough double again which can take from 1 hr or more.
Preheat the oven at 200c
Transfer the dough on floored counter space and roll it into a oval shape.
Mix all the ing. mentioned under stuffing except cheese and spread it on half of the dough. Cover it with grated cheese and fold the dough into a half. It will be like the half moon shape.
Brush lightly with oil and and sprinkle the seasoning and spread the remaining grated garlic.
Transfer it to a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 15 mins.
Slice then into strips and have hot with soup or a cheesy dip.
“Torcettini di Saint Vincent” – heard this name for the first time one when Aparna gave us the baking challenge for this month. These four months have been fun and have cooked different things till now and i am sure that the coming months will be full of baking surprises.
Same as i have done earlier i have followed Aparna’s recipe to the tee and so will be sharing her recipe here. Torcettini di Saint Vincent – these are cookies which have a crispy crust due to the caramelised sugar and has a chewy texture inside. It was a good experience baking these, not a favorite of mine but good for a try. So here goes a bit on the name of the cookie and the recipe as well.
Torcettini are smaller versions ofTorcetti (meaning small twists), and these pear/ teardrop shaped twists are made of a dough of flour, yeast and butterwhich are shaped and then rolled in sugar before being baked. These biscuits are synonymous with the town of Saint Vincent in Valle d’Aosta, a small mountainous region in North-Western Italy, even though they’re well known throughout the Piedmont region as well.
The origin of these biscuits is believed to be from Grissini (breadsticks) which were made from the leftover scraps of bread dough. According to one story, a Grissini baker had some leftover butter which he needed to use up. Inspiration struck and he decided to add the butter to the last batch of his Grissini dough for the day. To be able to differentiate this lot of “breadsticks”, he rolled them in sugar and shaped them into loops, and the Torcetti was born. Torcetti/ Torchettinitaste even better when they’re flavoured with lime/ lemon zest or anise.
40gm unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
1/3 cup sugar for rolling the cookies
Method
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water, in a small bowl and keep aside.
Put the flour and the salt in large bowl and mix. Add the butter pieces and mix till the flour-butter mixture looks powdery.
Add the yeast-water mixture and mix till it all comes together as a ball. Do not over knead. Place the ball of dough in a oiled bowl, turning it so it is well coated with the oil. Cover the bowl, and let the dough rise quite a bit.
This dough does not really double in volume, but it should look “puffy” after about an hour or so. When you pinch off a bit from the top you can see the interior looking a bit like honeycomb. Press down the dough and deflate it, wrap it in cling warp and refrigerate it for 2 hours.
When ready to make the cookies, take the dough out and lightly roll it out into an approximately 6” square. If the dough feels sticky, scatter a little sugar on it. Using a pizza wheel cut the dough into four strips of equal width.
Cut each strip into 6 equal pieces, by cutting across, making a total of 24 pieces.
Roll each piece into a pencil thick “rope” about 5” long. Sprinkle a little sugar on your work surface and roll the “rope” in it so the sugar crusts the dough uniformly. Form the “rope” into a loop crossing it over before the ends.
Place the Torcettini baking sheets, leaving 1 1/2″ between them. Leave them for about 20 minutes or so till they rise/ puff up slightly.
Bake them at 160C for about 25 minutes till they’re a nice golden brown. Cool the cookies completely and store.
Baking bread can be addictive and i am loving learning new breads. As you all know We Knead to Bake is a group In Facebook, where in we all bake a new bread each month. This Months bread was Hokkaido Milk bread and i have heard it for the first time. It is known for its soft cottony/ pillowy texture. Apparently it’s very popular bread in South Asian bakeries across the world.
This is how Aparna describes this bread in her blog….i have not made any changes to the recipe and have followed it completely. So the recipe and description that follows is completely her writing i am just writing it her for my reference.
The Hokkaido Mild Bread owes its texture and height to the use of an interesting ingredient called Tangzhong. Basically, the Tangzhong method involves cooking 1 part of bread flour with 5 parts of water (by weight) at 65°C (149 °F) to form a roux.
At 65°C, the gluten in the bread flour and water mixture would absorb the moisture and create a “leavening” action. When the Tangzhong is added into other ingredients of a bread dough, it produces light, tender and fluffier bread.
So lets jump to the recipe now…Do try this bread as i am sure you will love it. The texture of the bread is very nice and we have them as soon as it out of the oven with some butter and cheese. I shaped them into a loaf and some more into pav rolls. The texture was very soft crumb in the bread and i am sure this will be a regular at my place. 🙂
1/3 cup tangzhong (use HALF of the tangzhong from above)
1/4 tsp salt
25gm unsalted butter
Method :
The Tangzhong (Flour-Water Roux):
Whisk together lightly the flour, water and milk in a saucepan until smooth and there are no lumps. Place the saucepan on the stove, and over medium heat, let the roux cook till it starts thickening. Keep stirring/ whisking constantly so no lumps form and the roux is smooth.
If you have a thermometer, cook the roux/ tangzhong till it reaches 65C (150F) and take it off the heat. If like me, you don’t have a thermometer, then watch the roux/ tangzhong until you start seeing “lines” forming in the roux/ tangzhong as you whisk/ stir s point.
Let the roux/ tangzhong cool completely and rest for about 2 to 3 hours at least. It will have the consistency of a soft and creamy crème patisserie. If not using immediately, transfer the roux to a bowl and cover using plastic wrap. It can be stored in the fridge for about a day.
The Bread Dough:
I made this dough by hand, you can use a food processor which will make things easier for you.
In a bowl mix flour, salt, sugar, powdered milk and instant yeast.
In another bowl mix milk, cream and Tangzhong till smooth.
Add this to the flour mixture and mix nicely and knead it into a dough.
The dough is quiet sticky and transfer this onto a smooth surface and knead the dough nicely for 10-15 mins. (I usually love this part and find it quiet relaxing as well)
When the dough is done, you should be able to stretch the dough without it breaking right away.When it does break, the break should be form a circle.
Form the dough into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl turning it so it is well coated. Cover with a towel, and let the dough rise for about 45 minutes or till almost double in volume.
Place the dough on your working surface. You don’t need flour to work or shape this dough.
I made this into 1 small loaf and 6 small rolls.
I made one small loaf and 6 small rolls. So I first divided my dough into two equal pieces first. Then I divided the first half into three equal pieces to make the loaf. The other half was divided into six equal pieces for six rolls.
The shaping of the portions, whether for the loaf or the rolls, is the same.
Roll out each portion of the dough with a rolling-pin into an oval shape, about 1/8” thick. Take one end of the dough from the shorter side of the ova land fold it to the middle of the oval. Take the other end and fold so it slightly overlaps the other fold. (See the collage)
Roll this folded dough with the rolling-pin so the unfolded edges are stretched out to form a rectangle. Roll the rectangle from one short edge to the other, pinching the edges to seal well. Do this with each of the three larger pieces and place them, sealed edges down, in a well-oiled loaf tin. Cover with a towel and leave the dough to rise for about 45 minutes.
For rolls i just rolled them into a ball and shaped them into small rounds.
Brush the tops of the rolls and the loaf with cream and bake them at 180C (325F) for about 20 to 30 minutes till they are done (if you tap them they’ll sound hollow) and beautifully browned on top.
Let them cool in the tins for about 5 minutes and then unmould and transfer to a rack till slightly warm or cool.
Enjoy this Bread as it is or you can also prepare mini cheese sandwiches as i did with the leftovers.
Pinks Notes.
If you want a savory version you can cut the amount of sugar to 1 tbsp and add more salt.
I did a second batch of this bread and made them into garlic rolls and they turned out great.
Pinks Recipe Diary 